


Authentic Slytherin Charm

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-12
Updated: 2007-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-19 14:31:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12412125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Blaise/OCHonestly, all Blaise wanted was a date to the Yule Ball, and now look what's happened.  It's like his failings are the new source of entertainment around here...





	1. Step One: Always Make a Good First Impression

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

  **This is an idea I came up with not too long ago, and so I decided to put it into action :)  Hope you like it!  And, by the way, I don't own anything except for Marra Spenner.**

**~Becca**

_~~~_

With a cool air of confidence, Blaise Zabini sauntered into the Great Hall. All around him, there were boys wandering around nervously, trying to ask someone to the Yule Ball, and there were girls giggling about who they wanted to ask them.

Was he nervous? Yes.

Was he worried? Of course not. Because Slytherins always got what they wanted, whether by their authentic Slytherin charm, or, if needed, by force. Though Blaise was sort of leaning towards the former. 

“Hello, Draco,” he greeted as he took a seat at the Slytherin table.

“Blaise,” Draco acknowledged, picking at the food on his plate. Blaise took some breakfast for himself and started eating.

Pansy, sitting next to Draco, leaned forward so she could see Blaise beside him. “So, Blaise,” she started, “have you got a date to the ball yet?” Blaise shook his head. “Well, you’d better get one soon, or you won’t get one at all.”

Blaise grunted in response.

“Of course,” she said slyly, looking over at Draco, “I was lucky that Draco asked me so early.”

Suddenly, Draco started stabbing his food with a fork and shoving it into his mouth as quickly as he could manage. Pansy took no notice.

“I mean, I always knew he would, but now I don’t have to sorry about Draco asking somebody else, do I?” she shoved Draco playfully, and he smiled slightly. About as well as he could with a mouth full of food.

“You’d better get a move on though, Blaise. You don’t want to have to go to the ball alone. I think I’d about die, wouldn’t you? Oh, but that won’t happen to me.” She pointed to Draco with her fork.

“I’ve already got my dress. All the girls in my dorm thought it was _gorgeous_. My mother sent it in just a few days ago. Not that I’ll tell you guys anything about it, though. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

She linked her arm into Draco’s and grinned. Then she turned back to Blaise. “You know, Blaise, Daphne Greengrass hasn’t been asked yet, last I checked. Maybe you could ask her?”

But Blaise shook his head. He already knew who he was going to ask. He scanned the Ravenclaw table for her strawberry blonde hair. She was eating with her fellow third-years, at the end of the table. Her pale-skinned arm rested limply on the table while she talked spiritedly with them. Every once in a while she would laugh and blush and cover her mouth. She wasn’t too fond of her teeth, Blaise found.

“Well, you’d better find someone,” Pansy said. “I’m going to go back to the Common Room and get ready for classes. We have Defense first today.”

“I’ll go with Pansy,” Draco announced. “Coming?”

Blaise shook his head. “I’m going to stay here a little longer,” he replied.

Draco nodded as he and Pansy walked away and out of the Great Hall. Blaise continued picked nonchalantly at his food until he saw her get up. 

He watched her as her curly light hair bounced behind her, her arms swinging loosely at her sides. Blaise saw her leave the room before he stood up and followed her out.

“Hey!” he called, when he was out of the Great Hall. “Wait!”

She spun around and looked at him skeptically. “Do I know you?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he cleared his throat and extended his hand. “I’m Blaise. Blaise Zabini.”

She shook his hand. “Marra Spenner. Nice to meet you.”

He was silent for a moment. “I’m in Slytherin.”

“I know,” she pointed to his robes. “But that’s…interesting,” she commented, clearly confused.

“I’m in my fourth year,” he said, oblivious to the awkward situation they were in.

“Third,” she replied. He of course, already knew this, but he figured that if he told her that, she would only be scared of him.

“Well, I was just wondering…I mean, I wanted to ask you,” he took a deep breath, “if you would like to accompany me to the Yule Ball?”

There, he had done it. He had asked her to the bloody Ball. Now all that was left was for her to say yes, and then-

“Blaise, was it?” He nodded. “Right. Well, I’m sorry, Blaise, but I barely even know you.”

“But I just-”

“And so I don’t think we should go together.” 

Blaise stared at her for a few moments more. It processed that he had just been rejected, which confused him. Slytherins always got what they wanted.

_Well, if it was bloody necessary, then._

Suddenly Blaise had her pushed up against the wall. She gasped and her eyes widened as her back came into hard contact with the stone. He put his hands on either side of her, making it impossible to escape. Then his lips came crashing down on hers, and he snogged her like nothing else. 

“What the _bloody hell_ are you doing?” she yelled as soon as she had pushed him away from her. They were both breathing heavily and their lips were red.

“I-well, I-um,” Blaise stuttered. “Did that _really_ not work?”

“What?” She shook her head. “Of course not! What were you thinking?”

Apparently, Marra wasn’t looking for an answer, because as soon as she asked, she turned on her heel and stormed away, leaving Blaise behind, contemplating his actions.

“Bloody confusing, the lot of ‘em,” he muttered, as he began to make his way down to the Slytherin dungeons for his books.

“By the way,” he heard from behind him. She had stopped, her body still faced in the direction she was headed, only her head turned back to look at him. “I do believe you have disappointed me.” And then she continued on her way. 

Blaise shook his hair out of his eyes and carried on as well. 

Draco was lounging on the couch when Blaise entered the Common Room. Pansy was sitting in the chair across from him. Draco saw him first.

“Hey, what took you so long?”

Blaise shrugged. “Just ran into someone.”

“Who?”

“That third-year Ravenclaw. Marra Spenner.”

Pansy wrinkled her nose. “The mudblood?”

“She’s not a mudblood.”

“Great-grandmother, whatever. It’s all the same, really,” she said as she waved it off. “Anyway, we were waiting for you to get back. We’ve been here for a while now.”

“Just five minutes, actually,” Draco corrected her. She scowled at him.

“Either way, class starts in fifteen minutes, so we should leave soon. After you have your books, of course,” she said, looking at Blaise, who nodded indifferently.

* * *

“What does she mean I _disappoint_ her?” Blaise ranted, back in his dormitory. Draco was sitting on his bed, flicking through his Transfiguration textbook. He rolled his eyes as Blaise went on.

“Does she mean she’s disappointed that I snogged her? Or is she disappointed in the _way_ I snogged her?” He paused, then shook his head. “No, that can’t be it…”

“Who are you going on about?” Draco asked apathetically.

“You know exactly who I’m going on about, Malfoy,” Blaise argued.

Draco put down his book and looked straight at Blaise. “Zabini, I haven’t the faintest bloody idea what you’re talking about.”

“Spenner, of course!” he yelled exasperatedly. “Who else would I be talking about?”

Draco shook his head and stared at Blaise incredulously. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe a nice, Slytherin fourth-year? Like yourself?” He replied coolly, obviously not expecting the answer he received. 

Blaise snorted.

“Honestly, you snogged a mudblood?” Draco continued. “Sorry,” he added, catching a look from Blaise. “I’m sure she just meant that she was disappointed you didn’t try harder.”

“So you think I should?”

Draco rolled his eyes. “Lost case, this one,” he muttered under his breath. “Do what you want. I’m going down to the Common Room.”

Blaise nodded, and Draco brushed past him quickly, and Blaise thought he heard him muttering something along the lines of ‘bloody idiot’.

Once Draco was gone, Blaise sat down on his bed and sighed in frustration. He was embarrassed by being turned down, not only because it was Marra Spenner, but also because she was only a third-year. In Blaise’s mind, being older meant having more authority. If he told someone they were going to the ball with him, then they were sure as hell going to go to the ball with him. 

Looking around the room, his eyes landed on a letter his parent’s had sent him, along with his dress robes. He walked over to the desk and picked it up, skimming it here and there as he read. 

All of a sudden, he dropped the parchment, wide-eyed. The light bulb had gone on above his head.

“A letter!” he exclaimed, taking a clean sheet of parchment and his quill, and sitting down to write. “I am a genius,” he said to himself as he touched the quill to the parchment. 


	2. How to Deal With a Hopeless Case

**Chapter 2. I'm probably going to put this one up rather quickly, and hopefully this will be the first fic (besides one-shots, of course) that I actually stick with long enough to finish! Anyway, This chapter is from the first person POV of Pansy. Enjoy!**

**~Becca**

 

I don’t know why I should help Blaise. In all honestly, he’s a hopeless case. Not only was the girl he picked a year younger than us _and_ in a different house completely, she didn’t even say yes! It has to take a complete lack of skill on the part of the Slytherin’s side for that to happen. Because Slytherins always get what they want.

But it’s not like I could say no to Draco, especially when he comes down into the Common Room at night, sits down next to me on the couch, puts his arm around me, whispers in my ear…really, who could?

“I need your help,” he had said, oh-so-seductively, on the couch, in the Common Room, his arm around mine. Or did I mention that already?

So, of course, I, thinking he wanted some _alone time_ , so to speak, replied, “I’ll help in any way I can,” in an equally seductive voice, as I leaned into him.

“I need you to help convince Spenner to say yes to Blaise.” Well that is definitely not the same as _alone time_ for me and Draco, but as I said, he was leaning close to me, and I could feel his breath on my ear. It’s very distracting. So, in my moment of weakness, I accepted. 

Blaise isn’t a morning person. He wake **s** up around noon each day, usually missing a part of class, if not the whole class. However, I was up fairly early, and I wanted to talk to him about my proposition. Therefore, the only solution would be to get him up myself.

I had been in the Boy’s dormitory many times before, with Draco. No, not _with_ Draco…yet, but we would spend time _alone_ there. Unless Blaise was in there as well, as he liked to follow us around, in which cases we would simply talk. Blaise is probably under the impression that our relationship is merely talking.

So, for that reason, I felt no uncertainty about going into the Dormitory myself and getting him up. So I didn’t bother trying to be quiet.

Blaise shares a dorm with Draco (of course), Crabbe, and Goyle, and they all sleep like rocks, Blaise especially. I tried shaking him gently, shaking him not-so-gently, and shaking him as hard as I could, for starters. Then I started conjuring buckets of water.

“Agh!” he yelled at me as I poured it over his head.

“Good, you’re up. It’s time for breakfast.”

“What the bloody hell are you doing here?”

“Getting you up, of course,” I said, as if it were the most natural thing in the wizarding world. And then I left. 

I waited at the Slytherin table for him for a long time, and after a while, I was sure he had fallen back asleep, but as I scanned the room for the umpteenth time, I saw him groggily walking into the Great Hall. It’s weird, I think, how yesterday, they all had been so awake. Probably didn’t want to look bad for his darling Marra Spenner. But I’m trying not to care.

“Why’d you wake me up so early?” he mumbled, sitting down next to me and picking some food onto his plate.

“Look, Blaise, I happen to know everything there is to know about girls. Especially those like Spenner,” I offered, very nicely if I do say so myself. “And I am willing to help you for only a small Slytherin’s fee of about 15 sickles a day until she says yes.” Which should give me a small fortune. 

“Fifteen?”

“Small Slytherin’s fee,” I shrugged 

“Make it ten,” he argued.

“Fourteen.”

“Eleven.”

“Thirteen.”

“Fine,” he negotiated, and we shook on it.

“Alright, so thirteen sickles a day,” I said as I wrote it down on a piece of parchment. “Okay, now sign here,” I turned the parchment towards him and held the quill out for him to take. He eyed me suspiciously before taking them. Though I don’t know what could be so suspicious about it. He already lost his pride yesterday, he doesn’t have much else to lose.

“A contract? Why do we need a contract?”

“Just to outline the major points of our deal.”

“You make it sound like a homework assignment.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the parchment back as soon as he had signed, and signed on the line next to his. Boys can be so stupid sometimes.

“Okay,” I started, “now, we have to go over a few things. First of all, you will not talk to Ms. Spenner without my knowledge and approval.” Because if he were to do that, he would definitely make a fool out of himself _again_ , and I wouldn’t want to be associated with him if that were to happen.

“Why?”

“Because, Blaise, you’re not exactly a genius when you talk to girls. No offense,” I added. No offense, but you’re kind of a git to girls, I was thinking.

Blaise shook his head. “That’ll be hard. Besides, what if I randomly run into her in the halls or something?”

“Thank Merlin it’s Saturday,” I declared. “We have so much work to do with you.” I looked him over critically. “Come on; let’s get back to the Common Room.” 

I kept giving him pointers as they walked back towards the dungeons. “Oh, and I heard about your whole ‘episode’,” I made the quotation marks with my fingers. “Don’t do that again.”

“So am I allowed to say hello if I pass her in the halls?”

“Well, hopefully that won’t happen,” I said, glancing quickly at him. “But if it does, you will look down at the ground and look embarrassed, okay?”

“Fine,” he grumbled. 

I nodded in approval. “Good. We may be getting somewhere.”

“But what if she says hello to me? Do I just walk past in stony silence?”

I didn’t tell him of the probability that she would voluntarily come up to talk to him. I didn’t think he needed to know. “If she says hello, you may greet her back, and keep walking. No conversations, got it?”

He nodded. “But what if-”

“No.” I interrupted quickly. “No matter what she does to you, you say hello, and keep walking.”

“Oh,” he ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay, then.”

Soon we were sitting on the couch, continuing our discussion of what he was and was not allowed to do. It seemed that the ‘not allowed to’ list far outnumbered the ‘allowed to’ list, but if he hadn’t noticed, I wasn’t about to be the one to tell him. 

“And, you are not, under any circumstances,” I concluded, “allowed to send her any sort of love letter. That includes notes on a napkin, as well.” I looked over at him, and noticed he had paled considerably.

I put my head in my hands. “What did you do?” I groaned.

“See, if we had had this conversation yesterday, we wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

“What did you do?” I repeated.

“So really, it’s your fault that this happened.”

“ _What did you do_?”

He twiddled his wand between his fingers distractedly. “I may have sent her a short note.”

“A love letter?”

“Well, I suppose it could be classified like that.”

“What did you write?” I asked anxiously. 

“Well, I didn’t sign it, so it can’t be that bad, can it?”

I almost lost it. Almost. “What were you thinking?” I yelled at him, smacking him upside the head. 

“I thought-”

“No,” I said sternly. “You didn’t. You didn’t think at _all_. You can’t sent her an anonymous love letter!”

“Why not?”

I smacked my forehead, just to show him how upset I was with him. “Because she won’t know who it’s from!”

“Is that a problem?”

“Of course that’s a problem! I mean, let’s say that Spenner’s friend, let’s call them ‘Ash’-”

“Is Ash a boy?”

“Sure. Yeah, Ash is a guy. And so-”

“Why can’t he be a girl?”

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing going on between them.” I rolled my eyes, exasperated. 

“How do you know?”

“Because I just made him up! Would you calm down? Anyway, let’s say that Marra gets your wretched note, and thinks it’s from Ash? She wouldn’t want to say no, would she?”

“Why not?”

“Because she wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings, of course. Therefore, she says yes, and you’re out of a date. Get it?”

Blaise thought about this for a moment. “So, what should I do?”

This guy was hopeless. There was really nothing he could do at this point to salvage his dignity. “I don’t know. You shouldn’t have sent that note in the first place.”

“Well, since you’re a bit too late for that, could you at least try to help me?”

I looked over him. His eyes were practically pleading for me. And who can resist pleading eyes? So I gave in. “Fine. I’ll talk to her.”

I could tell he was trying to hid the fact that he was grateful. No doubt he thought it would tarnish his “masculine” image. He obviously didn’t know that he had already ruined that, but I wasn’t about to be the one to tell him.

He nodded stiffly. “Thanks.”

It was going to be a long month.

“By the way,” I said, as an afterthought. “What did the letter say?”

He shifted guiltily in his seat. “Oh, that. Well, it said…” 


	3. How Come I'm Always the Victim?

**Here's chapter 3! I honestly don't know if people are even reading this story, but I'm posting it anyway. This chapter is from the first person POV of Marra. Enjoy! Oh, and leave a review! I want to know how I'm doing.**

 

**~Becca**

 

_~~~_

 

_Marra Spenner,_

_I know you don’t really know me, but I do know a lot about me. And I know that I really like you. Like, a lot. I know you probably don’t feel the same way as I do, but I just had to tell you. I was actually wondering how and then I found a letter my parent’s had written me, and inspiration struck. I don’t know how to be romantic, or sensitive, or anything, though._

_But I am strong. Really strong. And I’m somewhat smart, too. And I am definitely blessed with rugged good looks, if I do say so myself. So I think you should give me a chance._

_From,_

_…Like I’d tell you._

I read through the message again…and again, and again, and again. No matter how many times I re-read it, though, I was still just as confused as I was the first time. 

I was sprawled out on my bed, my hair fanned out on my pillow. One of my arms was holding the ragged piece of parchment in front of my face while the other lay limply off of the side of the bed.

“What do you make of this, Lexi?” I asked. She was on the bed next to mine, beginning her homework. I handed her the note and watched as she read through it.

When she handed it back to me, I could tell that she was trying hard not to laugh. “Looks like someone’s got themselves an admirer,” she chuckled. I made a face at her and grabbed the letter back.

“It’s probably just a cruel joke,” I said, crumpling the parchment in my hand. Suddenly I sat up. “I bet Brandon sent it! The git…”

Now she really _did_ laugh. “What’s so funny?” I demanded.

“Nothing,” she said, calming down a bit. “Nothing.”

“Right, well,” I turned so that I was sitting on the side of the bed, my feet touching the cold ground. “I’m just going to have to talk to Brandon about it.”

“I don’t think Brandon would have sent that.”

“Why not?”

“Because, I see it this way. If Brandon really did like you again, I doubt he would want to jeopardize your friendship by doing something stupid like this.”

I thought about it for a moment - it did make sense. I shrugged. “I’ll talk to him anyway,” I said and walked swiftly across the room before Lexi could say anything more. 

I stopped about halfway down the staircase and peered into the Common Room. It was rather crowded for this late in the afternoon. Many Ravenclaws were milling about, chatting with their friends, or starting some of their homework. I spotted Brandon on the couch, and started walking over to him, the letter still clutched in my hand.

He smiled at me as I sat down. 

“Hey, beautiful,” he said. I rolled my eyes. “What brings you to the Common Room?”

“I just felt like coming down,” I replied. “What’re you doing?”

“Transfiguration homework. I swear, when you get to fourth year, you are going to be so overwhelmed by this work.”

I sniggered. “I’m looking forward to it, then.”

His gaze flicked down to my hand. More specifically, what I had held in my hand.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“What’s what?” I said, feigning ignorance. Sometimes it would work.

Apparently this wasn’t one of those times. He grabbed my hand and wrenched the parchment out of it. I watched, stunned, as he read through the note. He frowned as he read, and it deepened as he continued. 

He held it up to me. “What is this?”

“I…I was going to ask if you had sent it.”

He shook his head and read through it again. “Well, whoever sent it, he’s not too proficient, is he?”

I slapped his arm playfully. “You’re such a snob,” I admonished. “I’m sure he’s perfectly intelligent.”

He paused for a moment, considering that. Then he held the note up. “Did you read this, or not?”

I snatched it back from him. “Of course I did. Maybe he was just nervous, or something.”

“Or just not smart…” Brandon muttered under his breath.

“Actually, until I got down here, I was going to ask if _you_ had written it.”

Brandon looked shocked. “Me? Why would I write that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It was just an idea. I don’t have a clue who sent me that, though. I figured, at least it was a start. 

“I am deeply offended that you think that I could write such atrocities.”

“Oh, shove it. Whoever wrote it must have been extremely anxious and I think it’s sweet.”

He snorted. “Whatever. Think of it what you may. I, however, will be over here with the sane people of Ravenclaw, laughing at you.”

“Come off it, Brandon, I’m not insulting you,” I sighed. “So you didn’t write this?”

“Nope,” he said, leaning back into the couch, and I followed suit.

“I wonder who could have, then.”

He shrugged. “Could be anyone. Hey, are you hungry?” he asked. 

“Starved.”

“Okay. Well, I say we go eat now, and try and figure this little mystery out later. Sound good?”

“That does sound good,” I said, getting up, and pulling Brandon up with me. 

“Shall we?” he offered, holding his arm out.

I took it. “Yes. We shall,” I smiled, and we exited the Common Room.

“So, how was your day?” he asked, as we walked down hallway after hallway.

“Oh, it was fine. You know, the usual.” I neglected to mention my little run-in with that reckless Slytherin. He didn’t need to know that, anyway.

“That’s good. Mine was good, too, thanks for asking.”

I looked at him confusedly. “But I didn’t ask you…?”

He sighed. “Exactly.”

As we rounded the next corner, I could see the small outline of someone else at the far end of the hall. He looked somewhat familiar from a distance, though I couldn’t clearly make out who it was. 

As we walked towards each other, I felt my heartbeat quicken as I began to panic. “Oh no!” I whispered. “Hide me, Brandon!”

“What?” He asked, surprised, as I ducked behind him. He spun around. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t talk to me! I’m hiding!”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” he muttered as he grabbed me under my arms and pulled me back up. “You looked like an idiot.”

It was too late to dart behind a suit of armor now. He had seen me, and immediately flushed and looked at the ground. I took a deep breath.

“Hi,” I said shakily as he passed me. He didn’t respond. He kept looking hard at the ground, his face red, until he was out of sight.

I slowly turned back to Brandon. “What the hell was that?” he asked.

I groaned. “Do you have to know?”

He pretended to think about this a bit. Then, he nodded. “Yes, I believe I do.”

“Fine,” I gave in. “He’s a Slytherin. A fourth-year, like you.” 

“Yeah, I know. Blaise Zabini. My question is, how and why do you know him?”

“He…well, he kind of asked me to the ball this morning, after breakfast.”

Brandon turned red. “What?!” he exclaimed, turning quickly to where Blaise had just disappeared around the corner.

“No, don’t get mad, I didn’t say yes…”

He instantly loosened up. “Oh…right. Okay.”

I laughed. “You good now?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah.” He thought for a moment more. “Hey…do you think he sent you the note?”

I grunted. “I doubt it. Did you just see that interaction? I’ve probably scared him away by now.”

Brandon smiled.  
  
"Yeah...probably." 


	4. This is all Pansy's Fault

**Chapter 4...for anyone who actually reads this story...haha.  But if you do, Thank you!! This chapter is Draco's chapter.**   


 

I don’t know what Pansy thinks she’s doing, but she’s not helping. I thought she had understood that I _didn’t_ want her to accept him. He should be going to the ball with someone that could up his social standings, such as, oh, I don’t know, a _Slytherin_ , perhaps?

But no. She just has to take what I say literally. No reading between the lines with this one. Therefore, I feel it is my duty to make sure that Spenner never, _never_ says yes to Zabini. Not that I ever thought she would. Zabini isn’t a genius with the girls, if you know what I mean. Not like me, at least.

I thought about it a little earlier. The way I see it, there’s no way Spenner would say yes to him anyway. The story’s been circulating around the school, about how he attacked poor, poor Marra Spenner, as she was walking through the halls, defenseless, and ended with her running off, scared to death. Rumor has it she spent the next few hours up in her dorm, shaking, and she could only say one thing: “Git.”

But you never know. Girls can be weird sometimes. And, not knowing Spenner personally, I just can’t take anything for granted. 

The Ball is in three weeks. Three incredibly long, time-filled weeks, where anything could happen. My mission is to make sure that this does _not_ happen. 

Which is why, at the moment, I am crouching behind a suit of armor. I know, I know, Slytherins do _not_ crouch behind suits of armor. But, then again, Slytherins always get what they want. And, right now, the latter seems more important.

So I’m behind a suit of armor, beside the entrance to the girl’s bathroom. I saw Spenner go in there a few minutes ago, and I figure she’s bound to come out sometime.

Which she did. And the moment, I heard her footsteps coming towards me, and saw her pale purple flip-flops, I jumped out from behind the suit of armor.

“Spenner!” I yelled as I landed directly in front of her. She hastily took a leap back, panic etched on her face. But it faded when she realized it was only a student.

“What the _hell_ are you doing?” she screamed, loudly. I looked around to make sure nobody had been around to hear it.

Her eyes flicked to the Slytherin crest on my robes, and she sighed audibly. “Are _all_ the Slytherins completely _nuts_?” she said, rolling her eyes. 

It took me a moment to understand that; I had almost lost track of my goals in all the excitement. All the screaming, the accusing, it can get distracting at times. 

“Excuse me?” I warned her. 

She didn’t catch the warning.

“First some guy randomly pushes me up against the wall and snogs me against my will, and now some other Slytherin jumps out from behind a suit of armor, for no apparent reason. What am I supposed to think?”

“Alright, Spenner, we need to get a few things straight. One,” I held up one finger, “You will not say ‘Slytherin’ as though you just ate something really unpleasant and want to spit it out. Two,” two fingers, “You will not make generalizations of us just because of two rare instances-”

“That happen to occur two days in a row.”

I ignored her. “Three,” three fingers, “you will not, under any circumstances, _ever_ agree to go to the ball with Blaise Zabini.”

She snorted. “Of course not! What do you think I am, stupid? I may not be a big bad fourth-year,” she said sarcastically, “but I _do_ have a bit more common sense.”

“Well whoop-de-do for you,” I growled at her. She rolled her eyes.

“Right. Well, this has been fun, but I really must be going.” She said, and left.

I nodded. One down, two to go.

I cornered Daphne in the Common Room that night, right before she went to bed. I saw her beginning to get up from the couch, so I quickly got over to her and sat down beside her and said “Hey, Daphne, you’re not going to bed already, are you?” Very sneaky, I know.

So she sighed and turned around, realizing she had been beat. “What do you want, Draco?”

“I just wanted to talk to you,” I leaned back into the couch to give her the impression that I was actually planning on sitting here for a little while.

She did as well. “What about?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I snapped my fingers to indicate that a brilliant topic had just entered my mind. “Do you have a date for the Yule Ball yet?”

She eyed me carefully. “No, but you do.” 

I chuckled light-heartedly. “I’m not talking about me, silly,” I slapped her playfully on the arm, and she leaned away from me. Perhaps I was taking this a bit too far.

I cleared my throat. “Sorry. What I mean is, Blaise asked a Ravenclaw to the ball yesterday morning.”

“And…” she motioned for me to continue.

“And she’s not even a fourth-year! She’s a year younger than us!”

“Cripes! Are you saying that Blaise _actually_ has the free will to ask anyone he wants to the ball? You must be kidding!”

I sighed. “I get the feeling that you’re mocking me.”

“No. Of course not,” she said, barely cracking a grin.

“Fine. Whatever. My point is, I don’t like it.”

“You can’t control who Blaise goes to the ball with, Draco,” she told me. Well, what did she know?

“Until now, you mean. You don’t have a date for the ball, Blaise doesn’t have a date for the b-”

“I thought you just said he asked a Raven-”

“She said no, of course! Anyway, since you both have dates, I thought maybe, you know…” I trailed off suggestively. 

Her eyes widened as she realized what I was asking of her. Honestly, she’s not exactly the strongest wand in the shop, if you know what I mean.

“Are you kidding me?” she said finally.

“Maybe you didn’t hear me right. I’m saying that Blaise will _not_ go to the ball with Spenner.”

“The mudbl-”

“Whatever, whatever,” I waved her off. “My point is, I already talked to Spenner, and she agreed to never agree to go with him. Didn’t take any convincing, either, it was actually very easy.”

“So if she’s already told you that she’s won’t go with him, then why do you need me?”

“Two reasons. First reason is that I’m just covering all my bases. If Blaise already has a date, he won’t go around asking Spenner anymore. And Two: He can’t go to the ball alone. That’s like suicide.”

Daphne thought for a moment. “Fine,” she conceded. “I’ll talk to him.”

I held up my hand to stop her. “Tomorrow. I have to talk to him first.”

She nodded. “Okay. Tomorrow. I’m going to go to bed now, alright?” I nodded, and watched her climb the stairs to the girl’s dormitory.

Two down. 


	5. Of My Quest to Out-Plot Draco

**Chapter 5 is from the first-person POV of Daphne.  There are actually going to be quite a few more chapters, so if you read, please review!  I have a pretty clear idea of where this story is going, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish it.  If you read this, thanks for reading!!**

**~Becca**

 

_~~~_

 

It’s not like I ever wanted to help him. He just comes up to me, assuming I have nothing to do in my life (which I do), and asks me to go to the ball with Blaise. Maybe I wanted to go to the ball with someone else, then what? Maybe I wanted to go with a _hot, Ravenclaw third-year_. A guy, of course. Because I’m a Slytherin, too. I have my own evil plots to go through with. It’s just selfish of him to assume that he’s the only one with an evil plot. Daphne Greengrass is never without an evil plot, because, quite honestly, they are fun.

And as of a few minutes ago, my evil plot is to out-plot Draco. He wants me to dissuade Blaise from getting the girl? Well, he’s going to have to do that all by himself. I’m not helping, and that is my evil plot. I’ve been needing one of those anyway.

Instead, I’m going to do whatever I can to help Blaise. Number one on my list: Talk to Spenner. Surely she will be able to see by my complete normalness that Slytherins are actually not all bad. Hopefully she will, at least. 

So now, I feel justified in the fact that I am sitting at the Slytherin table, just waiting for Spenner to come through those doors and sit down at her own table, at which time I will elegantly rise from my seat, and stride swiftly yet attractively over to her and engage her in a simply engaging conversation. About going to the Yule Ball with the guy that she hates.

But really, who can blame her? Blaise has no woman skills, none at all. I could probably convince Spenner to go to the ball with _me_ before she would ever agree to go with Blaise. Of course, I mean no offense towards Blaise. He does have looks, which isn’t all bad.

I rubbed my eyes. I was still a little tired. Since I didn’t know what time Spenner usually went down to breakfast, and I couldn’t ask Blaise (even though he would probably know), so I decided to wake up as early as I could and try and get down before anyone else.

I woke up at around six this morning, and I waited an hour before even the first person showed up for their meal. And it wasn’t Spenner, because nothing ever goes right for me. It’s not like I’m hungry anymore, either, because it’s boring sitting by yourself. I pretty much ate my weight in breakfast food.

But all my waiting finally paid off. When I saw Spenner strutting confidently into the Great Hall, I sighed an extremely audible sigh of relief (though no one was around to hear it), and approached her at the Ravenclaw table.

“Hello, Spenner.” 

She looked oddly at me. “Do I know you?” Crap. I forgot to introduce myself.

“I’m a friend of Blaise and Draco’s.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Oh, right,” she said. “That would explain it.”

I glanced at her curiously. “Excuse me, but that explains what?”

“Well, this isn’t the most normal way to start a conversation, is it?”

“Like you would know, Spenner.” 

Okay. Damage control. I can’t lose my temper in front of her. I don’t think that would help Blaise very much.

I took a deep breath to steady myself.

“Right. Okay. I am Daphne Greengrass,” I introduced myself. She shook my hand cautiously.

“I’m just here to talk to you about Blaise.”

“Oh, no, that’s okay,” she said, waving her hand all around, “Someone already talked to me…Pandy, I think her name was?”

“Pansy,” I corrected. “And, no offense to Pansy, but I’m sure you can benefit from a second talk.”

“I’m sure,” she said dryly.

“Just out of curiosity, what did Pansy say, exactly?”

“Just how great a guy Blaise was once you got to know him,” which was true, sort of, “and how if she wasn’t already going to the ball with Malfoy, she would definitely consider Blaise as a potential candidate,” which was not true. I had probably never heard a bigger lie in my life.

But I kept my mouth shut.

“Well, Spenner, all of that really is true,” I lied. I had always prided myself in being a gifted liar. A characteristic all Slytherins should have.

“I’d like to believe you,” (a lie), “but when Blaise asked me to the ball two days ago, he didn’t really seem like someone I would have a good time with.”

“Why not?”

“He practically raped me!” she yelled. More people had come into the Great Hall, and at that, they all turned to look and me and Spenner.

“Okay, if you could keep your voice down, that would be great,” I warned her. “But seriously, he didn’t rape you! He just…pushed you up against the wall and snogged you.”

“Oh, like that’s much better,” she complained.

This girl obviously did not know much about the subject. 

“Well, it’s not like you didn’t feed on it!” I countered. She immediately drew back, a shocked expression on her face.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you know bloody well what I’m talking about, Spenner. ‘By the way, Blaise-y dearest’,” Okay, I added that part for fun, “‘I do believe you have disappointed me.’ Now tell me that’s not encouraging him!”

She clapped a hand over her mouth. “How do you know about that?”

“Easy,” I said. “He _told_ me.”

“But that’s personal!” she exclaimed. “Why would he tell you that?”

“You obviously don’t know Blaise very well,” I said. Now it was my turn to act indifferently. Take that, Marra Spenner.

“Oh, and you do?” I simply stared at her. She would figure it out eventually. “Oh…right. Never mind, stupid question.”

“Look, Spenner. I’m not asking you to go to the ball with him.” Actually, that was exactly what I was doing. “I’m just asking you to give him a chance, maybe talk to him once or twice at meals or something,” I offered.

“Fine,” she conceded. “I’ll talk to him one time. But if he relays everything back to you…”

“Then I’ll be sure not to mention it to you. Thank you, Spenner. Now, I really must be getting back to my Common Room.” Shaking her hand one last time, I rose gracefully from the table and walked swiftly out of the Great Hall and down into the dungeons.

I was actually excited to tell Blaise about what had happened. He had to be happy that I had actually sort of set him up with Spenner, right? I mean, this was one step closer to going to the Yule Ball together.

Luckily, he was up when I got back to the Common Room, putting the finishing touches on his homework that was due that afternoon. He always was a great procrastinator. 

“Blaise!” I called, and he turned from the couch to face me.

“Hey, Daphne,” he said, and patted the space on the couch next to him. I sat down. “Look, Daph, I-”

“Don’t call me Daph,” I said. I hated being called Daph. 

“Right, sorry. Anyway, I talked to Draco yesterday,” Oh no, “and he gave me this idea. And I was wondering, if you would like to go to the ball with me.”

“Before I answer, Blaise, how did Draco give you this idea?”

He flushed and looked at the floor. “He came up to me and told me to ask you.”

“Okay. Well my answer is no, just so you know. But I have exciting news!”

He perked up. “What? What is it?”

“Well, I just talked to Spenner, and she just agreed-”

“To go to the ball with me?” he asked hopefully.

I had been hoping he wouldn’t ask me that question. After that, my news would be a tad lackluster, compared to that. No, Blaise, you don’t have a date to the Yule Ball, but Spenner agreed to talk to you! Once.

“Uh…no. But, she did agree to talk to you! How exciting is that?” I had to try what I could to make my news well-received.

“Oh. Well I guess that is pretty exciting,” he said dully. 

“But she only agreed to talk to you once.” My news was just getting worse and worse. I don’t know why I ever thought it was good news, really. “So I am taking it unto myself to make sure you don’t blow it.”

“Oh, well thanks, Daph…ne, but I think I can handl-”

“Blaise, do not try to fool me, you are an idiot around girls.”

He sighed. “But I _am_ hot, right?” 


	6. The Preparations of Blaise and co.

**Chapter 6 contains many, many different POVs that I tried to make apparent in context, but just in case here they are: First is the first person POV of Blaise, second is Marra Spenner, then the third is Draco, fourth is Brandon, then fifth is Pansy, then Lexi, and then Daphne.  I tried to get all of the characters POVs into one chapter, to basically compare all their thoughts towards the fact that Blaise and Spenner were going to have breakfast together the next morning.  Okay, I know that's not a huge deal, but whatever.  Thanks for reading :) I'm sorry if this is a confusing chapter...  
**

**~Becca**

 

 

It had only been a few days, and already I had a list taller than me about things I was not allowed to do or to say in front of Spenner. I’m not sure how they could expect me to remember all of them, but somehow I was expected to.

First there was Pansy’s set of rules. Don’t talk to Spenner, don’t mention her to anyone, act really embarrassed whenever she’s around, etc. However, I just couldn’t see how those would help. But, her being a girl and all, I decided to give it a try.

And then Daphne approached me. And not only did I get rejected _again_ (How many times was this going to happen?), but I got a whole _other_ list of pointless rules to follow. Because apparently I am a git. At least that’s what they both told me.

At least Daphne wrote down her rules for me. And not one of them was “Do not talk to Spenner, under any circumstances.” No, they were more along the lines of what I should do when I talk to her, because, according to her, I definitely was. 

Because I was having breakfast with her tomorrow morning.

Even though all of my friends were going to be sitting around us, most likely keeping an eye on me.

But I was excited. I never would have thought that she would ever want to even talk to me again, but Daphne told me that she pulled a few strings and made it happen.

“Then,” she said, “you should talk about things that you can actually talk about, like quidditch, or magic, or something. Don’t try and fake it and talk about sterling silver, or hoop earrings, or anything like that.”

Don’t ask her about her grades.

If she asks me a question, be absolutely sure that I can answer it before I do.

Do not shovel my food into my mouth so fast that I choke. (This one was actually a more general rule, rather than a ‘Talking to Spenner’ rule.)

And, above all, don’t be a git.

~~~

I don’t know what I’m supposed to talk to him about. I don’t even know why I agreed to do this. I mean, sure, Daphne seemed a little less weird than the other Slytherins I had come in contact with, but was I seriously so out of my mind to consent to something like this?

“I don’t even know what he’s interested in,” I had told Lexi earlier, “how should I know what to say to him?”

“Talk about quidditch,” she said. I looked at her disbelievingly. “Oh, come on. He’s a guy, right? Chances are, he will know about quidditch.”

“But I don’t!”

“That’s okay. Fake it.”

So the only thing on my list to talk about with Blaise was quidditch.

I was going to have to ask Brandon about this.

~~~

My friends are useless. I think I have Pansy on my side, and she fails me. Then I ask Daphne, and she fails me, too. Maybe it’s just a girl thing. 

So he’s going to have breakfast with her tomorrow morning. Not a big deal, right? _Wrong_. Before, she hated him. Now, it’s breakfast. Before you know it, they’ll be going to the Yule Ball together. Then, they’ll be dating. Then I’ll be invited to their wedding, and then their baby shower, and soon there will be little Marra Spenners and Blaise Zabinis running around and there will be _mayhem_. _Chaos_. 

So I have _got_ to put an end to this once and for all.

I tried to talk to that Greengrass woman about her blatant betrayal, but all she had to say was, “You’ve had your evil plots. Now I’ll have mine.”

Of course I’ve had my evil plots. She should know that no one, _no one_ gets in the way of my evil plots, because if they do, they will be forced to face the consequences. 

Of course, no one had ever dared cross me before, so I didn’t have a list of consequences ready for me to pick from, but I was in the process.

Slap her across the cheek. (I had to rule this one out because even I’m not cruel enough to hit a girl. Even though it should be done.)

Steal her potions homework. (A definite possibility that would give me an excuse not to do it myself, as I could just copy hers.)

Simply make sure my evil plot out-plots her evil plot.

Evil plot, evil plot, evil plot.

And that was the key.

~~~

“I still don’t see why you’re doing this,” I told her in the Common Room that night. One night before she was to have breakfast with Blaise Zabini.

“Really, Brandon, I’m not sure what your problem is with this,” she shrugged. “I just told Daphne I would.”

“And since when do you go around cavorting with Slytherins like her?” 

“Oh, please. I don’t go around cavorting with the Slytherins. But she cornered me earlier, and asked me if I would.”

“And so you had to say yes?”

“Well…no, but I thought it would be a nice thing to do. Besides, weird Slytherins have been confronting me about the whole ‘Blaise’ scenario, so I thought maybe that this would get them off of my backs.”

“You haven’t even thought this through, have you?” I admonished. This conversation was not going the way I wanted it to be going.

“Not really. But what is there to think about? I go, have breakfast with him, and before I know it, it’ll be over and all this will be behind me.”

Yeah. That’s definitely not going to happen. “Or, you go have breakfast with Zabini, and then they are all just even more driven to get you two together.”

She thought about this for a moment, then shrugged. “Either way. It’s not like I’ll end up going to the ball with him anyway, you know?”

I nodded. “I know.”

~~~

This was _my_ job. It was _my_ responsibility to get those two together. Draco specifically asked me. Did he ask Daphne? Of course not. Why would he have to? He had me on his team. 

And I. Never. Lose.

So you can imagine my surprise when I hear that _Daphne_ had gotten Spenner to have breakfast with Blaise. Really, Spenner barely even let me talk to _her_. 

And everyone knows that I am far better than that Daphne Greengrass. Besides, I’ve lived with her for four years and I can say that her feet are at least two sizes smaller than any of our other dorm mates. Not that I’d let that slip to anyone… _maybe_.

~~~

Really, I found the whole thing quite amusing. When Spenner came up to the dorm earlier that day to tell me, the first thing I did was laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” she said accusingly.

“I just think it’s funny. I mean, you don’t exactly have good feelings towards the guy, right?”

She stuck her tongue out for effect. “Of course not! But I figured I’d do them all a small favor, you know, to give them hope.”

“So you’re a hope-giver then?”

She laughed. “Yeah, I’m a hope-giver. Good one, Lexi.”

Extremely amusing.

~~~

I have a top-notch evil plot that Draco cannot even _touch_. Ponder that, Malfoy. 


	7. The Woes of an Artist

**Here's the next chapter.  Definitely not my favorite, and not crucial to the plot, but it is useful all the same.  The is from the first person POV of Daphne.  Thanks for reading, and please review!  And also take a look at my collection of drabbled, _Autumn Echoes_**

**~Becca**   


 

“You look beautiful today,” he said. That was the first of many times I elbowed him in the side.

Of course, he ignored me.

“Thanks,” she said. Then looked at me. “Hello, Daphne.”

I smiled and nodded politely. She sat down next to Blaise. “So, how are you?” she started.

So original. 

“I’m good. Just eating my breakfast.”

Elbowed again. He could be so boring, sometimes.

“I really don’t know what to talk about,” Spenner said. Too bad she was sitting so far away, or I would have hit her as well. 

“Well, what do you think of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?”

I thought we had put ‘Don’t talk about school’ on the list. Didn’t we put that on the list? 

“Professor Moody?” she thought for a moment. “I guess he’s okay. I mean, I don’t think I could be best friends with him or anything,” she chuckled.

Blaise laughed. Loudly. So I elbowed him again.

He turned back to me and whispered, “That’s getting really annoying, you know?” I grinned smugly at him and he turned back.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he replied. “He seems a little weird, don’t you think?” Spenner nodded. “I mean, where do you think Dumbledore got him?”

“Well, maybe he just meandered down to the Defense teacher shop, and thought this one looked suitable,” she said sarcastically, looking at him strangely.

My evil plot was just not going to work if they didn’t cooperate properly. So I decided to step in.

“So, Spenner, do you play Quidditch?” I could see Blaise’s eyes light up. He knew about Quidditch.

“No, actually, I don’t really get Quidditch. It’s just all so confusing.” Honestly, she was a third-year with magical parentage? Did she grow up in a log cabin or something?

Blaise simply stared at her incredulously. “Are you serious?”

She nodded shyly. 

“Okay,” I whispered in his ear, “you don’t want to make her feel stupid.”

He shook his head and I sat back. “How can you not get Quidditch?”

“I just…don’t. No one ever explained it to me.”

“It’s easy. You have three chasers, who go around and throw around the quaffle, and aim to score by throwing the quaffle into the three hoops at each end of the field. Then there are the beaters who deal with two other balls called bludgers, that fly around the field and distract the players. And then there’s the keeper, who defends those three hoops, and the last player is the seeker, who flies around looking for that small golden ball called the snitch.”

She considered all this for a moment.

“I…still don’t get it.”

Suddenly I understood what was going on. There was no way a thirteen year old with a witch as a mother and a wizard as a father could go to a school such as Hogwarts and _not_ know about Quidditch. Of course she knew about it. 

“It’s really not that hard. What don’t you get about it?”

I elbowed him again. Really, he could be pretty thick sometimes.

“Any of it. It’s just so confusing.”

“Are you muggle-born or something?”

Spenner glared at him and opened her mouth to respond.

But I was quicker. “Well, I’m done eating!” I said loudly, suddenly standing up. “Let’s go, Zabini. Spenner, this has been much fun, thank you so much,” and then I dragged Blaise out of the Great Hall by the arm.

“Hey, what was that about?” he complained once we were out of the room.

“You should be _thanking_ me, Zabini,” I shook my head. “Even you should know not to question her _blood_. That’s just insulting.”

“It wasn’t on the list, though,” he argued.

“It’s pretty much common sense, I thought,” I rolled my eyes. “Apparently, I was wrong.”

“Well, I’m sure it’s okay. Let me just go back in and apology-”

“No! Don’t go back in! Are you nuts?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Look,” I continued. “You had a nice, sort of long conversation with her. That’s a start. Don’t ruin it.”

“I don’t think I would do anything stupid like that.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he would. 

“Still. Just…don’t.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Fine.”

And I followed him all the way back to the dungeons, just to make sure he didn’t turn back without me knowing.

First class of the day was Transfiguration, which we had with the Hufflepuffs. I sat at a desk towards the middle of the room, next to Blaise (of course), and Draco and Pansy sat behind me. It was often hard to concentrate with Pansy swooning over him all the time, but I managed. 

Someone poked me in the back and handed me a note over my shoulder.

_I hope you know that Draco’s mad at you._

“I am aware of that, thanks,” I whispered back to Pansy.

“Why is he so mad at you?”

“That would be between me and Draco.”

She didn’t like that. I didn’t hear another word from her throughout the whole class. I used my Pansy-free time to doodle in my textbook. I drew a picture of Blaise and Spenner dancing at the Yule ball, and, as an afterthought, added Draco off to the side, looking extremely bummed out. 

“Quite the artist, Greengrass,” I heard a voice drawl in my ear.

I smiled back at Draco. “Thank you, Malfoy. I like to think so to.”

“Who’s that?” he asked, pointing to Blaise.

“Blaise.”

“And that one?”

“Spenner.”

“That last one, off to the side?”

“Why, that’s you.”

“I see,” he said, and didn’t say anything else to me, though I could hear him whispering to Pansy behind me. 

I heard the rustling of Pansy’s robes as she leaned forward.

“Greengrass,” she muttered. I looked back. “I left my book back in the Common Room.” This was a lie. 

_“Have you seen my transfiguration book?”_ she had said.

_“Yeah, it’s here, next to my bed. I had to use it last night. Mine is still down in the Common Room.”_ I had replied, handing it to her. 

And then I watched her place it in her bag.

So I knew that she had it.

“Can I borrow yours?”

“Sure,” I said, feigning ignorance. 

“Thanks.” She took the book from me.

I twiddled my fingers as I waited for her to give it back. I could faintly hear the scratching of her quill.

“I’m done with it now,” she said, and I took it back.

She had tampered with my drawing. The character I had intended to be Blaise was now labeled as _Pansy_ , the person who was supposed to be Spenner was now _Draco_ , and the old Draco, standing sadly off to the side, was now _Daphne Greengrass, who is sad because her evil plot was squashed by Draco Malfoy (See Right)_. 


	8. Daphne Greengrass is my Bottle of Ketchup

**Here's chapter 8!  This one took a little longer, but it's here now.  Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for reviewing ;)  This chapter is from the first person POV of Pansy.  Also, read my other 'story', Autumn Echoes.  
**

**~Becca**

 

I thought it was quite clever, editing Daphne’s sketches like that. She deserved it, anyway, and I was proud to do it. Honestly, to think that _she_ could be more influential than _him_ is just silly. And that’s what Greengrass is. Silly.

Which is why I changed my stance. I am now voting anti-Blaise and Spenner.

Draco caught me yesterday after Transfiguration, and explained himself to me. He had only told me that he wanted them together because he had thought that that was what I had wanted, but as time wore on, he realized that he was wrong. And then he came really close, and whispered in my ear.

“I’m sorry…will you please forgive me?”

And, honestly, what did you think I did? I forgave him, of course. No girl can resist that charm and those rugged good looks.

Really, the only way he could be hotter was if he walked around Hogwarts without a shirt. He does that sometimes in the Slytherin Common Room, on nights after quidditch practice. I always mark them on my calendar.

But anyway, I changed my position in the whole ordeal. Which means I am now an enemy of Daphne Greengrass. 

Just saying the name makes me cringe.

“Daphne Greengrass.” Cringe.

“Daphne Greengrass.” Cringe.

“I’m so glad we’re on the same team,” Draco had murmured into my neck. I shivered.

“Draco Malfoy.” Shiver.

I was glad, too. Being on the same team with him means more alone time to plot against Daphne Greengrass. Shiver. Cringe.

And switching teams means the creation of a new game plan. Mine is to ignore Daphne (cringe) with all my energy. Therefore, I blatantly ignored her last night at dinner.

“Hey, Pansy,” she had said, “did you end up finding your Transfiguration book?” she asked. 

I turned away from her swiftly, reaching down to push my Transfiguration book back into my bag as I did so.

“I know you put it in your bag this morning, you don’t have to hide it now.”

I stuck my nose up in the air.

“Alright, but don’t ask me to borrow my book anymore.”

The idiot. Couldn’t she see I was ignoring her?

Obviously, I had to switch game plans. 

Meaning I was going to be so nice to her, that she feels obligated to see it my way. Well, Draco’s way. 

I left dinner a little early last night, in order to completely perfect my plan. It’s not an evil plot, per se, but in the big scheme of things, who’s to say?

I was in the running for most ingenious evil plot. 

Of course, what I told Draco was, “I’m going to talk to Daphne and try and convince her that your idea is better than hers, alright?”

And, worded like that, how could he refuse? I knew him too well. Of course he said, “Sounds great. Thanks, Pansy.” So not only was I competing with Draco and Daphne, I was now the good girl for doing it.

I love it when things work out. Of course, Slytherins do always get what they want.

This morning I decided it was time to put my plan into action. I stopped Daphne as she was heading out to breakfast, and offered to join her.

“Daphne, wait up!” I yelled as I raced down the stairs, sacrificing all of my dignity. This had better all turn out in Draco’s (and my) favor.

She had turned around curiously, probably confused about why I was so nice to her these days. Or, just today.

“Parkinson?”

“Oh,” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Call me Pansy. All my friends do.”

“Well, hello, Pansy. I guess I’m your friend now?”

“Of course you are, silly. You’ve always been my friend!” This was so not me. If this plan didn’t work, I would have absolutely no pride left. That is, if I haven’t already lost it all _before_ that.

Then I took her arm and led her up to the Great Hall for breakfast.

It was a very, very long day, as you can imagine. Half-way through, I was already prepared to give up, but then I would see Draco’s head floating in my mind (as I often did, though it held more meaning this time), and it would keep me going. After all, who wants to see Draco Malfoy upset? I sure don’t. Especially if it were my fault. 

So I endured an entire day with the enemy. I kept tabs on her throughout all of our classes, and I kept her deep in conversation most of the day to try and figure out if she had any new evil plots.

At the end of the day, there were still no developments, and I was starting to get extremely frustrated. What’s the point of tracking someone if there’s nothing to track? Honestly, she might as well be a loaf of bread, for all the information I’m getting out of her.

But of course, now I know things that will _definitely_ help in the future, such as the color of her mother’s hair (black), the eye color of her half-brother (hazel), and her favorite cat when she was 2 years old (Snippy). 

I’ll take what I can get.

It had taken a while for Daphne to open up, but once she did, there was no shutting her up. It’s like a bottle of ketchup. You spend hours trying to get the stupid ketchup to migrate out of the bottle, but once it does, there is no way you alone are going to be able to make it stop. And Daphne is my bottle of ketchup. 

I mean, it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t hate ketchup so much.

“So, how did it go?” Draco asked that night, sitting himself down next to me on the couch and slinging his arm loosely around my shoulders.

Now _this_ was what I had been waiting for all day. All those hours of enduring hell was finally going to pay off.

I sighed sorrowfully, going for sympathy. “Not so great. I didn’t even figure out her evil plot!” 

He hesitated. “But…we already knew her evil plot, remember?”

Oops.

“I mean, we already know she’s trying to get Spenner and Zabini together.”

Think fast, Parkinson. “Well, I know _that_ ,” I improvised quickly, “but what if she had a _new_ evil plot that none of us knew about? That Greengrass is a cunning one, you know.”

“Of course,” he paused, “but did you convince her to lay off a little?”

_Right_ …that had been the whole point of spending the day with her, wasn’t it? 

“I’m working on it,” I smirked. “You’ve got to ease into these things, you know?”

He nodded. “Well, keep working on it, then.”

I looked back at Daphne, sitting towards the back of the Common Room.

She was laughing.

Hard.

I hate ketchup (if you know what I mean). 


	9. Of Course I'm Impartial

**This one isn't that funny, I'll admit. Actually, I really don't like this chapter. But, it works. Enjoy! And remember to review ;) Thanks for reading! This one is from the first person POV of Brandon (remember, Marra's friend...haha I don't mention him much.)  
**

**~Becca**

 

This had gone on for far too long. When I first heard about it, that first day, I thought ‘Oh, well, she said no, that’s fine, then.’ Especially since she said she hated the guy.

But _breakfast_ with him? What was she thinking?

“She doesn’t like him,” Lexi said next to me. 

“How do you know? She agreed to have breakfast with him!”

“Yeah, and that definitely means wedding bells, doesn’t it?” she said sarcastically. “Snap out of it Brandon! You’re going completely nuts.”

I sighed and ran my hand threw my hair. “You’re right,” I admitted.

She leaned backwards with a triumphant expression. “Of course I am.”

I poked around my plate with my fork and looked back over at Marra and Zabini. “What do you think they’re talking about, anyway?”

“I don’t know. It really depends on what Blaise starts talking about. But I taught her how to talk about anything.”

“How?”

“It’s simple,” she explained. “Just smile and nod, and say ‘Gee, I never thought of it that way before.’ Of course, that’s just in emergency situations.”

“Well it doesn’t look like she needs any help right now,” I muttered.

Lexi groaned. “You are such a downer, you know that? Marra is your _best friend_. She just met this guy a few days ago. Who do you think she likes more right now?”

I rolled my eyes. “Like that matters. Look at them! They seem happy enough.”

I chose a bad time to show Lexi how happy they were. When she turned around, Marra was looking extremely confused and Zabini looked like he had just said something that he was dying to take back. And then the girl next to him elbowed him.

Then, all of a sudden, she stood up, throwing her fork down onto her plate, and dragged Zabini out of the Great Hall with her, looking livid.

“You know what, Brandon? You’re right. They look _so_ happy together.”

“Well they did a few seconds ago, at least.”

“It seems like they’re done with breakfast thought, doesn’t it?”

I looked back. It really did. Marra sat there, alone, a Ravenclaw at the Slytherin table, looking confusedly towards the door. Then she looked over at me and smiled. 

“She’s coming over here,” Lexi stated. “Quick, look nonchalant.”

I turned back to my plate and concentrated on picking at the food and moving it around to form little pictures.

“Stop that, Brandon,” Lexi mumbled to me. “You think she’ll be attracted to someone who plays with their food?”

“Who said I wanted her to be attracted to me?” I shot back. She snorted.

“Hey guys,” I heard behind me. Marra took a seat next to me, the other side from Lexi. “Brandon, Lex.”

“Hey Marra,” I replied. “So, how was _breakfast_?” 

“Oh, my,” Lexi muttered softly, so quiet that Marra couldn’t hear her, “ _Someone’s_ jealous.” 

“It was actually not bad,” Marra responded. I’m positive she could see my face fall. “I mean, it was the same breakfast as I would have had here, so that’s alright.”

“And plus, that Zabini _is_ pretty hot, you have to admit.”

“Thank you, Lexi,” I whispered to her. She grinned smugly.

Marra looked back at the doors of the Great Hall, where Zabini and his friend had left. “I guess…I never really thought about it before. But, my goodness, he is _adorable_ ,” she gushed.

Great. And what was I?

“Adorable?” 

“Yeah…I don’t know how to explain it. Do you know what I mean?”

Lexi nodded vigorously. “I know exactly what you mean. Is he really, though?”

“Definitely. He’s just like a big…kid, I guess.”

I was completely lost. “Adorable?” I repeated.

She smiled slightly. “You don’t get it, do you?”

I shook my head. Of course I didn’t get it. I didn’t even know how _she_ understood what she was talking about.

“I thought you hated him,” I said bluntly. Lexi choked on the small piece of bread she had just swallowed, and I slapped her hard on the back.

Marra shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I did. He seems nice enough though.”

“Nice enough to go to the ball with him?” I asked.

It was a little outgoing, I admit, but I was getting frustrated.

She grunted. “Yeah, right. Are you kidding?”

Lexi shot me a meaningful look that said _See? I told you. You’re going nuts._

She’s very talented with her eyes.

Then she kicked my leg under the table.

“So, you don’t…you know… _like_ him?”

“Of course not!” she cried. “That’s completely idiotic!”

I nodded contemplatively. This was good. 

“You know, class is starting soon. We should probably go,” Lexi said, staring pointedly at me.

“Oh…right. Of course.”

“Coming Marra?” She called as we were walking out. 

Marra looked up. “Yeah…yeah, I’m coming.” We waited for her to catch up before we continued walking. 

She and Lexi are a year younger than me, which means we have none of the same classes. They were in History of Magic, while I was stuck in Divination, and I couldn’t help but zone out, thinking of what they were talking about in their own class. 

I could imagine Lexi badgering her about breakfast, clearly, in the back of my mind. I could see her saying, “Okay, Spenner, tell me _exactly_ what happened, and don’t leave anything out!”

I mean, girls did that, right? At least from what I’ve seen they do. But, really, how should I know?

“Hey, you alright?” The girl sitting next to me asked. She was very pretty. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, except for a few short wisps framing her face, bringing out her liquid blue eyes.

I think her name was Kayla? Or it may be Christie…

Either way, she was a fourth-year Ravenclaw, like me, and, as far as I know (which I admit, was not much), did not have a date to the Yule Ball.

Marra had always envied blondes. I don’t know why, she’s just fine with her own hair color. She just felt that blondes were given ‘special treatment’ or something.

Which means that this Kayla or Christie could be the one that would make Marra Spenner insanely jealous.

Ingenious, no? 


	10. The Tale of Marra Spenner's Brilliant Potions Expertise

**Here's chapter ten! I really didn't think this story would last this long when I first started writing it, and there's still more chapters to go! Thanks for reading, and I hope you like it! This chapter is from the first person POV of Lexi, Marra's friend.**

**~Becca**

 

“Hey, you’re Marra Spenner’s friend, aren’t you?” I didn’t recognize the voice right away, but I definitely recognized his face.

“I’m Blaise,” he stuck out his hand. I reached his hand and shook it firmly, my eyes never leaving his face.

Because he was _hot_.

It’s really too bad he was in love with my best friend. But, what can you do?

“Lexi. Lexi Summers. And I _am_ Marra’s friend.”

Blaise nodded. “I thought I recognized you. You hang out with her a lot,” he explained.

“She’s my best friend.”

So here’s how this little gathering came to be. I was just walking out of my charms classroom, in the middle of the day. I had just slung my bag over my shoulder, and when I looked down I realized my shoe was untied.

And, of course, the one moment that I’m not looking where I’m going is the one moment where someone comes crashing into me at top speed. He knocked the wind out of me, and it took me a few seconds to catch my breath again. 

Then I had to pick up my books that were lying almost halfway across the hall. By now, people were staring, so I kept my head down, deliberately not looking up at who had knocked me over, though I could tell he was still standing right behind me. 

So I squat-walk over to the middle of the hallway and start to gather my books, when he comes over next to me, bends over and starts to help my get my things together into my bag. 

Then he said, “Hey, you’re Marra Spenner’s friend, aren’t you?” 

And now I’ve come full circle. 

“Yeah, I figured as much,” Blaise replied. “It’s hard to find a moment where you’re not with her, you know?”

“Were you looking for one?”

He flushed and looked down. “Not _exactly_ , no, but I thought, as long as I had you alone, we might…”

I sighed. “Just say what you want to say, Blaise.” I had a feeling I knew what it was anyway.

He wrung his hands together. “No, if you’re in a hurry, I won’t keep you.”

“When did I say I was in a hurry?”

“Oh, well I just assumed, I mean…” he trailed off.

“What did you want to talk to me about, Blaise.”

“Actually, I sort of wanted to talk about your friend…you know, Spenner?”

“Okay, tip. Don’t call her Spenner. Her friends call her Marra. It is her name, after all.”

“Right. Marra. That’s what I wanted to talk about.”

I rolled my eyes. But I could see what Marra was saying about him being adorable. If he wasn’t frustrating me right now, I could just pinch his slightly large cheek.

“Oh no, no way,” I shook my head. “I am not fueling your psycho Slytherin obsessions.”

“She’s not some weird obsession!” he contradicted. 

In all honestly, I was really a little jealous of Marra. I mean, how many unbelievably hot guys were pursuing me fanatically? Not many. And Marra had _two_. Of course, Brandon isn’t as hot as Blaise, but he’s definitely up there.

“Whatever, Blaise,” I waved him off. “What did you want to say about her?”

He opened his mouth a few times, but closed it immediately, as if he had no clue what he was going to say. It _was_ really cute. Honestly, if he wasn’t stuck on my best friend I would definitely consider dating him.

“Do you just want me to say hi for you?”

He thought about this for a minute, and then nodded sheepishly. 

“That sounds good.”

I smiled quickly at him, and waved goodbye. He nodded back at me, and I turned and made my way back to the Ravenclaw Common Room. I had a free period after Charms, as did Marra. Hopefully, she would be studying on the couch, like she always does. Quite studious, that one. If I were her, I would be more worried about the hoards of guys chasing after her. But, sadly, I am not her.

Well, of course, the one time I’m actually looking for her in her usual spot, she isn’t there. Her space on the couch in front of the fire was oddly empty. _Empty_.

This was madness.

The second place I looked, I had more success. The library was the other place where she had been known to study at random times, and here she was now, sitting at the desk in the far corner of the library.

“Excuse me, Marra,” I said, “but why are you sitting all the way back here when you _could_ be sitting in the Ravenclaw Common Room, like you usually do?”

Marra flushed and began to stack up her books. “Sorry, Lexi,” she apologized quickly, “but my class is closer to here than the Common Room, so I decided to come here today. Besides, the Common Room is always so noisy.”

There were many things wrong with this alibi. First of all, the Common Room is rarely noisy, as most people in there are doing homework, and need it to be as quiet as possible. Secondly, her class was nowhere near the library. In fact, it was just down some stairs and to the left of the Common Room.

But I decided not to point these things out.

Marra put her books in her bag and rolled up her parchment. “Well, do you want to go now?”

I nodded. “By the way, I ran into Blaise – quite literally – and he said hello.”

“Oh, yeah, I saw him a few minutes ago, before you came in.”

If he was going to go looking for her, then why give me the message to deliver? “Oh?” was what I said.

“Yeah. I mean, we didn’t talk, just sort of…nodded at each other.”

“I see.” Quite a moment, they had. “Well, want to go?”

“Sure,” she agreed, standing up and following me out of the library. 

“So, what were you working on?”

She held up her rolled up piece of parchment. “Potions essay.”

“Right. I haven’t started that yet. Can I see yours?”

She drew back her arm. “Of course not! That’s cheating!”

“Oh, come on. I’m not going to copy it, I just need some ideas.”

“Go do your own essay,” she retorted.

“Oh, man, that hurt. Just let me see it, you’re not even finished, anyway.” I reached around her to try and grab the parchment, but she jerked her hand away at the last minute.

“Just one sentence, then?” I wagered. She shook her head and grinned smugly.

Suddenly, I was struck by a brilliant idea. I reached around her with both of my hands, as if to grab the parchment, and, just as I expected, she raised it above her head in an attempt to get it away from me. 

This is where the brilliance came in. Swiftly, I stood myself up on my toes and grabbed it out of her hand from above her head. She didn’t even see it coming, but as soon as she realized it was gone, she threw herself at me.

“Give it back!” she yelled at me. It echoed loudly off the walls, and I expect there were some people scattered randomly throughout the school that were now looking around in confusion. 

“Honestly, woman, it’s just a potions essay.” I threw her off me and ran up the stairs, unrolling the parchment as I ran away from her.

She was right behind me, so when I stopped abruptly, she almost ran into me.

“What was that for?” she asked bitterly. When she saw me reading her ‘potions essay’, she gasped. 

“What is this?” I demanded, reading through it again.

_~~I was wondering if~~ _

_~~Would you like~~ _

_~~Hey you~~ _

_~~So I was thinking~~ _

Each line, each being some conversation starter, was crossed out with a thick, black line. 

She avoided my eyes as she stole it back from me. “That’s none of your business,” she snapped.

I eyed her for a while.

“Loser,” I muttered, turning away and stalking back to the Common Room. 


	11. I May Have Just Turned the Tides

  **Wow, two chapters in one day.  I was pretty bored today :)  So this story is almost done now, just a few more chapters and then it'll be finished! (Unless I come up with some other brilliant idea for it...haha doubtful).  So here's chapter 11! It's from the first person POV of Malfoy. Enjoy!  
**

**~Becca**

 

So I had heard from Pansy, who had heard from Daphne that Zabini’s breakfast with his little gal pal had not gone quite according to plan. This was good.

“I talked to Daphne,” she had whispered into my ear. I imagine she was going for the smooth, seductive voice that I so many times use on her when I want something, but I have to say that hers needs work. It sounded more pained than seductive, and really didn’t make me want to snog her face off. Though I think that’s what she was aiming for. 

“Yea?” I had replied. There was no use in saying it seductively, it would only encourage her. 

She nodded. “I did. She was with Blaise during breakfast, you know?”

“Of course.”

“And I have good news,” she smiled. “Apparently it went awfully.”

“Is that so?”

“Mmm, so there are no worries now.”

What she forgot to mention was that neither Spenner, nor Zabini, thought so. 

No, they were actually talking _more_ now, saying hi to each other in the halls, smiling at each other at breakfast. Blaise now sat on the opposite side of the table than he usually did, just so he could make faces at her and she would laugh.

Really, how could such a drastic change come about from one small talk over breakfast, which, according to Greengrass, had not gone well for Blaise anyway?

I do not get these two. 

But I did know that I had to step it up a notch if I was going to keep them apart much longer. There is no way I am going to allow my dear friend to go cavorting with a Ravenclaw, and a third-year, at that. 

Friends just don’t let friends do that.

I caught her in Care of Magical Creatures. We had gone outside to look at God knows what, probably another awful creature who eats arms. While we were walking out, I excused myself from Pansy, who completely understood, and dragged Greengrass off to the side.

“So I heard you talked to Pansy the other day,” I stated nonchalantly. 

“That’s right.”

“And that you told her that breakfast had not gone well for Blaise.”

“Did I say that?” she furrowed her brow. “I didn’t say that. I just said it didn’t go well, and your girlfriend must have filled in the rest.”

“Well it’s sort of implied that it didn’t go well _for Blaise_ …” Honestly, this girl was bloody _confusing_.

“Oh, no,” she said arrogantly. “What I meant was that it hadn’t gone well for _you_. If I had said that in front of Pansy she would have bit my head off, and you know I need my head.”

I really didn’t like her. No one mocks Draco Malfoy and gets away with it.

“Well,” I drawled, “You should have said that, and saved me the trouble of tracking me down.”

“Tracking you down?” she laughed. “We’re in the same house! We see each other every day!”

She was still mocking me. 

“You know what? I don’t even care. You can keep your stupid…” and that’s when I realized that we weren’t arguing about something she had. “…attitude.”

I had pretty much lost that argument, and it was strange. I never lose arguments. Which meant that this argument wasn’t over. 

But I stormed off before she could talk back to me again, which meant that I had had the last word, which had to be a win in someway. 

“So how did it go?” Pansy asked once I got back to her.

“Oh, shove it.”

She didn’t talk to me the rest of class. Or the rest of the day, actually. It was strange, not having her yapping in my ear 24 hours a day. It gave me time to think, and I decided that I needed to talk to Spenner.

Which wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I had thought that, since we were in different years, our schedules would be conflicting, but it turns out they weren’t at all. I also had no idea where Spenner would be, but that was easier that I thought as well. 

I was walking back from Hagrid’s dreadful class, if you could even call it that. Personally, I’d call it _Frolicking with Death_ , but that’s just me. I was making my way down to the dungeons, to drop off my books. I had been planning to head out to the library first in my search; I thought that was a likely place for a Ravenclaw to hang out during a free period. 

I passed an open classroom; I hadn’t even known that it was a classroom. I always figured it was an unused broom closet or something, but when I passed it and looked inside, there was Marra Spenner speaking to the teacher, with no one else in the room.

So really, I hadn’t had to do any work at all.

She noticed me when she turned to exit the classroom. She paused for a moment, looking at me curiously. Then she pointed at me. 

“I know you,” she said. “Where do I know you from?”

“My name is Draco Malfoy.”

Realization. “I know who you are! You’re that weird guy who jumped at me from behind the suit of armor last week!” She seemed awfully proud of herself.

“I’d rather be noted as the man who enlightened you as to what is right and what is wrong.”

“And how did you do that?”

“I remember giving you three pointers. The first two don’t matter,” In all honesty, I really couldn’t remember the first two, “but I remember telling you not to go to the ball with Blaise Zabini.”

“He asked me last week, remember? And I turned him down. It’s not like I’d be able to go with him now, anyway.”

“Just tell me you will not, under any circumstances, go to the ball with him.”’

“I’m not promising anything! I don’t have to do anything you say,” she shot back.

“Oh, stop being difficult, Spenner. It’s not that hard.”

“No! I don’t want to!”

“Come on, Spenner,” I growled. “I won’t let you go to the ball with Zabini.”

“ _You_ won’t?” she asked incredulously. “I don’t see how it’s _your_ decision.”

“Easy,” I said simply. “Blaise is _my_ friend, and therefore _my_ opinions count. And _I_ will not let you go to the ball with _my_ friend.”

“Well, Blaise is _my_ friend, too. Doesn’t that matter?”

“Don’t be stupid, Spenner, you just started talking to him a couple days ago. You can’t call him your friend! Besides, I have known him far longer than you.”

“Well, I don’t care what you think. I’m not agreeing to any of your stupid plans.”

“It’s not like you wanted to go to the ball with him anyway. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

She took on an expression of a scary resolve. “You know what, Malfoy?” she said coolly. “I am going to go to the Yule Ball with him. And I am going to tell him right now.”

I think my utter shock must have been evident on my face, because she chuckled and said “Well, aren’t you a tough guy?” and then walked off.

I think I’ve lost enough arguments for a lifetime now. 


	12. Why Must Everyone be in Love With Me?

**So, here's chapter 12!  Really, only a few more chapters left.  This chapter takes place immediately after chapter 11 ends, and is from Marra's point of view.  Enjoy, and remember to review, please!**

**~Becca**

  
Well Malfoy was dumbfounded. I left him there, gaping like a fish. A big, arrogant, ugly fish. 

It was quite amusing, really. 

Once he came to his senses, he began chasing me. “Wait, Spenner, come back!” he yelled, and, “I didn’t mean it like that!”

And so I turned back and called to him, “Well, it doesn’t matter much right now, does it?”

Since he was still running while I had stood still, he caught up with me and grabbed my arm.

“You don’t understand, though.”

“Oh?” I laughed. “What don’t I understand?”

He hesitated, then, “Blaise already has a date!” he blurted out. 

I froze. He already had a date? How did that happen? _When_ did that happen? I was just having breakfast with him just a few days ago.

“Who?” I asked.

“Daphne Greengrass.”

“Daphne? But, I thought…I thought she was trying to help him…” This was not making sense.

“Yeah, well, they started spending more time together because of that, and so he asked her. I guess he realized that pining after you was hopeless.”

But it wasn’t! I was just going to ask him!

“Oh,” was what I said.

“So it’s probably not a good idea to go running off and telling him that you suddenly want to go with him.”

“Yeah…” I sighed. “Probably not.”

“I mean, that would be quite a dilemma for him, you know?”

“Right.”

I just stood there, staring at Malfoy, still stunned. Things were going well, weren’t they? What had happened to cause him to lose hope?

Suddenly, this empty hallway wasn’t big enough. “I’m sorry,” I excused myself. “I’m just going to go back to my Common Room, then.”

“That’s good,” Malfoy approved. I scowled at him, then raced through the halls as fast as I could.

Where was I going? Outside. The only place that wasn’t too constricting.

I slowed as soon as I made it through the large oak doors and felt the cold winter wind on my face. I didn’t have a jacket, but I honestly didn’t care. I walked over to the large tree by the lake and sat down beside it. Through the years, people had carved their initials in it with someone else, and had drawn a heart around it.

_D + H_. Heart.

_J + L_. Heart.

_K + P_. Heart.

It was sickening. So I stood up and just started walking across the grounds.

I was confused, to say the least. I didn’t like Blaise, not in _that way_ , but the thought of him asking anyone else to the Ball, especially _Daphne_ , just made me nauseous. 

“Marra?”

I whirled around. “Brandon!”

He grinned. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just walking,” I shrugged.

“Are you alright? You look a little pale.” Do I? Oh well.

“I’m just a little chilly.”

“Oh, well here, take my jacket.” He shrugged out of it and handed it over to me.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“So, what have you been up to?”

“Nothing much,” I said nonchalantly. Or, as nonchalantly as I could make myself sound. “You know, went to classes, talked to some people.” It was true. I went to classes. I talked to some people.

He nodded. 

“What about you?”

“I just came from Divination.” He had an odd smile on his face.

“Oh? What happened?”

“Not anything interesting, that’s for sure.” He rolled his eyes, still grinning. “Oh – well, actually, I did ask someone to the Yule Ball.”

Was I going to be the only girl without a date?

“Really?” he nodded enthusiastically. “Who?”

“Her name’s Kaylee Stone.” He tilted his head to the side, as if gauging my reaction.

I knew who Kaylee Stone was. She would often hang around the Ravenclaw Common Room in her low-cut V-neck shirts and her low-riding jeans, mingling with the groups of fifth-year boys. Her ‘after hours’ look, she called it. 

Personally, I called it slutty, no matter how you look at it. 

I laughed, which was apparently not the reaction he was looking for. He furrowed his brow and looked at me, confusedly. 

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, it’s just…Kaylee Stone…I mean…” I couldn’t finish. I was practically doubled over, laughing. 

“I don’t get it.”

Finally, I composed myself. Somewhat. “Well, Kaylee’s just so… _different_ , from the other girls you’ve been with.”

“Marra, I’ve only dated you and one other girl.”

“Oh, I know. But, I mean, when you told me that ‘I wasn’t your type’, you really weren’t lying, were you?”

He ran a hand through his hair and began to look uncomfortable. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought up our past relationship. 

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”

That couldn’t be good.

“What about it?”

He twisted his fingers around each other and bit his bottom lip. This had always been one of his nervous habits, and, back when I was still a first year, I would tease him about it.

“The truth is, girls like Kaylee aren’t my type,” he looked up at me cautiously. “I wasn’t lying, when I said that.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Brandon. Why would you-”

“My _God_ , are you really that dim?” I had not expected an outburst like that, and I cringed back a little. “You _are_ my type!”

“I don’t understand.” I really didn’t. I mean, I got what he was saying, but I didn’t see how it had to do with anything.

He sighed deeply, which seemed to calm him down. “Alright. Originally, I was planning on asking you to the ball.”

“Well, of course I would have gone-”

“As more than friends,” he specified quickly. 

“Oh,” I said softly, as that registered. “ _Oh_.”

“Yeah.”

“But…I mean, Brandon, you’re my best friend…and we’ve been there before…”

This encounter was getting to be extremely awkward.

“That’s what I thought you’d say.”

And now I felt really bad.

“I’m really sorry,” I told him. 

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I didn’t expect anything anyway. Really, it’s great.”

“Are you sure? Because, you know, you still have that date with Kaylee…” I trailed off. 

“Honestly, I only asked her because I had hoped it would make you jealous-”

“Because she’s blonde,” I finished for him.

“Exactly.”

“So, if I was ‘your type’ after all, why did you break up with me?”

He looked at me contemplatively. “I don’t know. I was just stupid, I guess.”

I smiled. “Well, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with Kaylee,” I said. And I imagined that he would. She would probably wear some strapless dress that falls down to just below her waist, or something equally as revealing. 

“You’re probably right. I just wanted to talk to you.”

I was actually grateful that he did. I had always wondered if I still had some infinitesimal amount of attraction to him. Now that he had admitted to being attracted to _me_ , I could finally move past that. I was now completely confident that I was not interested in him it _that way_.

Sounds weird, but it’s true.

Finally, I said, “So, do you want to go back in?”

He nodded, and we walked back into the castle together. 

Just inside the doors, by the window, I saw Daphne standing there next to some guy, who I assumed was from Slytherin as well. He was tall, and she was looking up at him and smiling. Then, he leaned his head down and kissed her cheek. 

“I’ll see you later,” she told him, and he nodded. Then she turned to me and waved. “Hey, Spenner,” she said, before walking into the Great Hall.

Something was not right. 


	13. I'll Ask You Again...

**Chapter 13! Another day where I post two chapters!  I am quite proud of myself, I have to admit.  There's only one more chapter after this, and it will most likely be in 3rd person again, like the first chapter, and it'll be about the ball and what happens with everyone.  Just a nice little epilogue of sorts, you know?  But here's the second to last chapter, from the first person POV of Blaise.  I thought it was time he had a chapter to call his own :P  Enjoy!  And please review!**

**~Becca**

 

Marra Spenner now thinks that I am going to the ball with Daphne Greengrass. How do I know this? Draco Malfoy told me. He _also_ told me that _he_ was the one who planted this insane idea. 

“And she believed me,” he said. “I was surprised that she accepted it so quickly.”

Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

“Well what am I supposed to do now?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “Take Daphne to the ball?” I glowered at him.

“Take who to the ball?” All of a sudden, Pansy was jumping over the back of the couch and into Draco’s lap. He gasped slightly as her weight came falling down on him, but recovered nicely with a sweet smile and a kiss on the cheek. 

“Blaise is taking Daphne to the ball,” Draco stated.

I cleared my throat. “No, I’m not, actually.”

“Oh, Blaise, that’s a great idea! You need a distraction from your whole ‘Spenner’ thing, I think.”

“Excuse me? I’m not going with Daphne.”

“It’s so cute! You look great together, too,” Pansy went on. “Honestly, you should ask her.”

“I’m not asking her!”

“I agree with Pansy. Besides, It’s not like Spenner’s even that pretty, but Daphne…” he trailed off.

Pansy looked at him. “Daphne what?” she asked, with a slight edge. 

“Well, of course, she’s nothing against you, but she is against Spenner, at least.” Pansy leaned back, smiling smugly.

“What?” I shook my head. “No! This is ridiculous!”

“I know how you can ask her, too! We’ll make sure to have the Common Room clear tomorrow night-”

“I’m not going to ask her!”

“And then we’ll give you a bouquet of flowers-”

“You’re not even listening to me, are you?”

“White roses are her favorites, but I don’t know where you’d find those,” she went on, and on, and on.

“I told you, I’m not going to!”

“I think they sell them someplace in Hogsmeade,” Draco supplied.

“Oh, that’s great! So you can get the white roses…” 

“I will not be getting any white roses because _I will not be asking her_.” Honestly, how thick were they?

“And you could figure out how to dim the lights somehow,” She continued.

Draco nodded. “That’s a good idea.” Pansy beamed.

“I think it is an awful idea, but I assume you’re going to roll with it anyway.” I decided to give up. They could plan it any way they want, but I will not be going through with it.

“Then, when she comes into the Common Room-”

“Hold on,” Draco interrupted. “How do we know when she’ll be getting here?”

“Good point,” Pansy concurred. “I guess we could have people keeping watch or something? Like, when she’s starting down the hallway, we could hire a first-year to come in and tell us?”

Draco nodded. “I think that would work.”

“Hey guys.” I guess in all the _excitement_ and _furor_ , no one had noticed Daphne, the very subject of our conversation, come in and stand behind the couch. “Who are we talking about now?”

I waved it off. “No one of consequence. So how are you today?”

She looked at me curiously. “Fine, I guess. Oh, Blaise, by the way, I saw Spenner earlier today.”

“Really? Where?” Beside me, Pansy and Draco both groaned. 

“Coming in from outside. And she was with that guy. You know, that guy she’s always with?” I nodded. Of course I had noticed. “And I was wondering, do you think he asked her to the ball?”

My eyes widened reflexively. “Why? Were they talking about it or something?” Immediately an image came into my mind of the two of them giggling and holding hands, taking a long, romantic walk by the lake. I grimaced. 

“No, it was just a thought. I don’t have any evidence or anything.”

“Oh,” was all I said.

“Well, they’re probably still eating in the Great Hall…I can go check, if you want?”

Without thinking, I nodded. She flashed a quick smile before turning to leave the Common Room.

Draco leaned over to me. “Come on, Blaise. Spenner already has a date. You _have_ to move past this. Go ask Daphne.”

It made sense. Marra had a date; why couldn’t I have a date as well?

“Yeah…that actually sounds like a good idea now.”

Draco grinned at Pansy, who grinned right back. It was scary, really.

“Hey, Daphne, I’ll come with you,” I called after her as she left the room. She turned to wait for me. Behind me, I could hear a quiet “Yay!” from the couch, and ignored it.

She laughed when I reached her. “Want to see for yourself? Don’t trust me, do you?”

I chuckled. “I just wanted to talk to you, is all.” Right. I was going to do this.

“Oh?” she asked inquiringly. “What about?”

“Well, I was just talking to Draco and Pansy, and they told me-”

“About how Spenner thinks we’re going to the ball together?” I nodded. “Yeah, he told me that, too. Absurd, really, don’t you think?”

“Of course,” I looked at the ground. This wasn’t going too well.

She stopped. “Wait,” she said. “You weren’t going to ask me, would you?”

“The idea came into my mind…”

“Because Malfoy and Parkinson put it there?”

I smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, sort of. But also because, if Spenner has a date, then I’ll need a date, too.”

We passed the library, and Daphne halted in front of it. “Hey, do you think she’d be in the library?”

I considered that. It was likely; she was a Ravenclaw after all, and they aren’t known for their strict avoidance of the library.

I shrugged. “Let’s see.”

And so we walked in. I hadn’t been inside the library very often, only when I needed books for research or something. And even that was extremely rare. 

Daphne was right; she was in the library. She was sitting at the desk in the far corner, a piece of parchment lying in front of her. She had her head down on the desk, her hair fanned out all around her head; she appeared to be sleeping.

As I walked closer, I saw that there was barely anything written on the parchment. This was a relief. No little hearts with her initials combined with someone else’s. Though it’s not like it said _MS + BZ_ either.

I tapped her shoulder lightly, and she jolted upright.

“Whoa, calm down,” I sniggered. She relaxed instantly.

“Oh, it’s only you,” she said, relieved.

“And I’m not scary, am I?” I said, a trace of mock hurt in my voice.

She grinned. “Yes, of course. You are so scary.” She laughed. “So what are you doing here? I didn’t think you came to the library.”

“So is that why you’re here, then? To hide from me?”

“No, I was just doing homework. If I wanted to hide from you, I’d go to the girl’s bathroom,” she joked.

Suddenly her light expression faded, and she looked almost sad.

“What’s wrong?” 

“Is it that obvious?” She laughed hollowly. “Sorry. It’s nothing. Really, don’t worry.”

“You sure?” I asked. 

“Yeah. I’m fine.” I doubted this, but maybe she was PMSing or something. Who knows?

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?” she asked. This conversation felt oddly familiar. I looked back at the rows of books and saw Daphne through one of the bookcases, smiling and giving me the thumbs-up.

Marra saw her, too. “Oh,” she said. “About Daphne?”

“Yeah.”

“Look, I already know you’re going to the ball with her, and I really don’t care. I mean, I’m not-”

“Marra?” she stopped talking. “I’m not going with Daphne.”

“What? But I thought…Malfoy said…” she trailed off confusedly.

“Just a little word of advice: Don’t believe everything Draco tells you.”

“So, you’re not-”

I shook my head, and she smiled slightly. Nothing big, just a small upturn of the corners of her mouth. But that was enough for me. “Cool.”

“And, I also wanted to ask you something, after we had gotten that cleared up.”

Her smile widened. “Is that so?”

“Yes. And I know, you turned me down last week, but I was stupid, and I’m not being stupid now, right?”

“Right.”

“I mean, I’m actually doing this right now. I’m not pushing you up against the wall, I’m not forcing you to kiss me…”

“Of course.”

“And you can see, I’m being much more mature about this that I was.”

“Just ask me the damn question, Blaise,” she laughed.

“Fine. I am asking you, Marra Spenner, if you would like to accompany me to the Yule Ball?”

“Why, Blaise Zabini, I do believe that I would be honored to accompany you to the Yule Ball.” 


	14. Epilogue: The Elegance and Grace of the Yule Ball

**Yes!! The last chapter!! This is the first story I have _ever_ written (besides one-shots, of course) that I have ended up finishing.  And I am very proud of myself :)  Thanks to everyone who read this (alright...not many, but still).  After this chapter goes up, I'll be posting this over at harrypotterfanfiction.com, but I'll probably use the same name.  It'll be under the penname _Camelia_ , in case anyone has an account over there.  Anyway, this is the last chapter (yay!), and it is in third-person, like the first chapter.  Thanks to anyone who has stuck with this story throughout the whole thing, I hope you enjoyed it!**

**~Becca**  

 

_She was right,_ Brandon thought, as he and Kaylee spun and twirled on the dance floor. True, the Ball had just started barely minutes ago, but he could already tell that this would be a good night. For one, Kaylee was a _good_ dancer. She knew exactly what she was doing, almost better than Brandon did himself.

_Almost, but not quite,_ he thought. Her face was radiant as she danced along with Brandon, neither of them paying attention to the music, though thinking that it was probably very good. 

They glided happily around, just like all the other couples there. And there were many other couples. The floor was filled almost to it’s capacity with the amount of dancers and their partners, yet somehow everyone had room. 

“This is fun,” Kaylee sighed. 

Brandon nodded. “It is, isn’t it? I’m glad I came.”

He looked across the room, and saw Marra and Blaise, on the side of the dance floor. 

“Come _on_ ,” she urged, trying to push him into the great mob of people.

“No, look, there are already so many people out there…” he trailed off, and shrugged.

“You baby. You’re just afraid.”

“Afraid?” he asked incredulously. “Afraid of _what_?”

“Dancing, you twit,” Marra joked, punching him lightly on the shoulder. “You’re afraid because I’m going to see just how awful of a dancer you are.”

“I am _not_ an awful dancer,” Blaise scoffed. “And I don’t think that I have to prove myself to you.”

“It’s okay to be uncoordinated, you know. I don’t care,” she rolled her eyes. “But you could at least be honest.”

“I am being honest! I think _you’re_ the one with the coordination problems.”

Marra laughed. “Me? Are you kidding? _I’m_ the one trying to get _you_ out there!”

Blaise snorted. “That’s what you think.”

“Yeah! That is what I think!”

“Well, in any case, I am not going onto that dance floor, regardless of my dancing abilities, or lack thereof.”

“Oh, I’ll get you out there sometime,” Marra smirked. “You just wait.”

“Fine,” Blaise said, crossing his arms and plopping himself down into a chair. “I will.”

Marra sighed, then sat down reluctantly in the chair next to him. “You’re a git, you know that?”

Blaise simply smirked and looked out among the crowds of people. 

Suddenly something caught his eye. He tapped Marra on her shoulder.

“Oh, so _now_ you want to-” she cut herself off as she saw the disbelieving expression on his face. “What?”

He pointed out to the throng of people. “Does that look like…” he trailed off, and Marra struggled to see where he was pointing.

“Where? I don’t see anything.” 

“Right there,” he showed her again. “See anyone familiar?”

“Blaise, there are tons of people out there. How can you expect me to see just-” but she stopped as she realized where he was pointing. “Is that _Daphne_?”

“I think it is,” he confirmed. “That’s weird. She didn’t tell anyone she had a date.”

“Well, doesn’t most everyone have a date tonight?”

That was true. “Still,” he said, “you think she would have told us.”

Daphne looked over at Blaise and Marra and laughed. Marra had stopped trying to pull Blaise onto the dance floor, and they were now looking towards her incredulously. No doubt they had seen her with her date, Mike. Of course she hadn’t told anyone about Mike. What, and provide a reason for not being able to do Malfoy’s dirty work? She would much rather openly defy him. It was more fun that way, she thought. 

“What are you looking at?” Mike asked her. 

She laughed. “I didn’t tell my friends that you had asked me, and now they’re a little bit shocked at seeing us together.”

Mike frowned. “You didn’t tell them that you were going with me?”

“Oh, don’t take it so personally. I doubt they even know who you are anyway. I thought it would be fun to see their faces when I come in with you. And I was right!”

“I swear,” said Mike, shaking his head, “that there are some people I just will never understand.”

Daphne simply smiled up at him innocently. 

“It’s bloody sickening, don’t you think?” Draco mentioned to Pansy. “I mean, can’t they go do that somewhere else?” He was watching Daphne and Mike from across the room for the last few minutes, and a distinct sneer had appeared on his face. 

“What?” Pansy asked. “Dancing?”

“No, not dancing,” Draco waved off the idea. “It’s like they’re trying to prove a _point_ or something. Don’t know why they don’t just go off and get _married_ or something.”

“Daphne and Mike? I don’t think they’re even going out,” Pansy pointed out.

“Not Daphne and Mike! Can’t you keep up with the conversation?”

“Sorry, who were we talking about now?”

“Zabini and Spenner. Look at them,” he grimaced. 

Pansy shrugged. “I don’t know, Draco. Now that I see them together, they’re actually kind of cute, you know?”

Draco looked at her, shocked. “Excuse me?”

Pansy rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Draco, I think Blaise should have asked someone more like himself, too, but since he didn’t, I think Spenner was a good choice.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

She sighed. “Fine. This is a disgrace. Daphne is with Mike, Blaise is with Marra, and the whole school is in uproar.”

Draco smirked. “That’s better. Though,” the smirk faded. “It didn’t really sound like you meant it…”

“Twit,” Pansy muttered under her breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Come on, let’s dance!” Pansy pulled him up to his feet and dragged him out onto the dance floor.

“Oops, sorry,” Lexi said as she bumped past Pansy and Draco as she walked through the floor. They just glared at her. 

Finally she caught up with Brandon. She tapped him on the shoulder.

“Oh, hey Lexi,” he said brightly, on hand still holding on to Kaylee’s waist.

“I see everything worked out well for you two, then,” Lexi observed. Brandon smiled wider. “Have you seen Marra?”

“Last I saw she was over there, flirting with that Zabini character,” Brandon mumbled. 

“Oh, I think it’s adorable,” Kaylee gushed. “And he is so _hot_ , too,” she added. Brandon rolled his eyes. “Marra’s so lucky.”

“Well, I was just looking for her,” Lexi said, “so I guess I’ll let you two alone then. Have fun!” She pushed her way back off of the dance floor and made her way over to where Marra and Blaise were sitting. 

“Why aren’t you two dancing?” she asked them.

“Because this idiot,” Marra pointed to Blaise, “refuses to dance.”

“I can’t dance,” Blaise said flatly. “Therefore, I won’t.”

Lexi had to laugh. “You’re kidding, right? I thought all Slytherins could dance.”

Blaise looked up at her curiously. “Where in blazes did you hear that?”

“Well, aren’t you all supposed to be these incredibly smooth womanizers?”

Blaise smirked. “Well I can’t really argue with that, can I?”

Marra snorted. “I sure could.”

“Okay, well I can see you two are busy doing nothing,” Lexi said, “So I’ll just talk to you later.”

Marra nodded. “Sounds good,” she said, as Lexi left. Then she turned to Blaise. “So, ready to dance yet?”

Blaise sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Marra smirked. He seemed to do that a lot.

Then he sighed. “Alright, I guess I’ll get this over with.” Then he smiled, took her hand, and led her out to the dance floor.

As he looked across all of the faces, he could pick out Daphne, beaming at him, Pansy, smiling slightly at him (though as soon as Draco saw her it turned into a scowl), and Draco’s signature sneer. But he didn’t care. He was at the Yule Ball with Marra Spenner, and that was all he cared about.

Was he happy? Enormously so. He enjoyed spinning around and around with her in his arms as they danced.

But was he surprised? _Of course not._ Because Slytherins _always_ get what they want. 


End file.
